Interview By Kostas Marangopoulos, M.Sc., CPT. Nick Anthony - Ready For The 2012 Arnold Amateur!

The past week I was very lucky to be asked to get interviewed By Kostas Marangopoulos, M.Sc., CPT. heres the link down below:

Nick Anthony - Ready For The 2012 Arnold Amateur!

Love, peace and big muscles

PROGRESS PICS 13 WEEKS IN MY PREP

I apologies to my fellow reader that I haven't been blogging post that often, the truth is that ive been really busy with work and most of the times im running like a headless chicken. But anyways heres a few progress pics that i took just to get a idea on how im doing.

Love peace and big muscles

SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO THINK "OUT OF THE BOX" TO SEE BETTER RESULTS...

As I had mentioned on one of my previous video blogs, I was going to talk about how sometimes you have to trick your body in order for it to respond well. About 5 weeks ago, I began my contest preparation and everything was going great up until week 4. For some reason I felt that my body was not responding well to the cardio. During my training, I was looking and feeling more depleted and tired I began to wonder why.

I decided to take a moment and think about it from ‘outside the box’. To be honest, I hadn’t really stopped cardio, even from the off season, I would train 3 times a week, 30mins in the winter and as the summer was approaching, I would increase it to 5 times a week- I live in Cyprus so yes I wanted to look good for the beach.

 I slowly starting to come to the conclusion that the constant cardio had caught up with me and as a result, the training was refusing to show any signs of change; in terms of both burning more fat and decreasing body fat. Like it or not, our bodies are not made to be ultra lean with very little body fat. Our bodies are built to store fat this concept can be traced back to the Stone Age era where we had to hunt for food. Back in the day we did not know if we would have food from one day to the next, therefore our bodies needed to store that fat to survive. A bit similar to how camels store water in their humps.

Yet fast forward to today, we are now living in a time where we no longer need to stock up on our food intake. Instead, our main preoccupation is looking lean and fit by burning away any excess fat. However our bodies to a certain degree are still programmed to function the same way they functioned during the hunting/gathering era. Therefore if we are constantly exercising, at some point our bodies will react by not burning as much fat as one would desire. So what do you do when you reach this plateau?

 The answer is quite simple, do the opposite from what you were doing; if you were doing cardio 6x a week, decrease it to 3. If you were training heavy and with a slowish tempo, train fast with a fast tempo and even add a cheat meal to shock the body on the weekend. Do this practice for about 1-2 weeks and then jump back to your normal routine. I tried this tactic out myself and I must say, results can be definitely seen. I generally felt more relaxed and rested, both physically and psychologically.

At the end of the day, what is important is to always listen to your body and think outside the box. Both body and brain are highly advanced mechanisms, yet every now and again there needs to be a change-a shock-a stimulation in order for both to maintain their effective functionality.

Love peace and big muscles.

BODY FITNESS PUBLICATION

SHOULDERS,TRAPS AND TRICEPS WORKOUT

Here is my yesterday’s workout which I did with Razmataaz. It was shoulders, traps and triceps. We were both in a rush so we had to improvise some exercises a little, but overall I think it’s an ok program. Enjoy!

FRONT DELTS

Exercise one: (heavy)
Hammer strength shoulder press
2-3 sets warm-up. 20 reps nice and light with a full range of motion
4 working sets:
• Set one 15 reps
• Set two 8-10 reps
• Set three 4-6 reps (heavy)
On these three sets increasing weight to failure.
• Set four 15+ reps with lightish weight just to get a nice pump. Finish with static 15 sec

Exercise two: (dropdowns)
Standing D/B lateral raises
3 working sets which each set consisting of 3 dropdowns of 10-12 reps

Exercise three: (medium/heavy)
Reverse grip z-bar raises
3 working sets
• Set one 12 reps
• Set two 12 reps
• Set three 10reps

REAR DELTS & TRAPS

Exercise one: (dropdowns)
Seated rear delt machine 3 working sets which each set consisting of 3 dropdowns of 10-12 reps

Exercise two:
Hammer strength shrug machine (heavy)
3 working sets
• Set one 10 reps
• Set two 10 reps

Use heavy weight to failure on each set. Also try to touch your ear lobes with your shoulder and bend slightly forwards while squeezing traps on the top on each set.

TRICEPS

Exercise one: (pre-exhaustion)
Seated one arm cable over head extension
3 working sets
• Set one 30 reps
• Set two 20 reps
• Set three 15-20 reps

I used lightish weights on these three sets as it is just a pre-exhaustion exercise but I did increase slightly the weight in each set. DON’T FORGET THE FULL RANGE OF MOTION GOING FOR THAT STRETCH.

Exercise two: (medium/heavy)
Straight bar cable push down
3 working sets
• Set one 12 reps
• Set two 10 reps
• Set three 10 reps

Nothing special on this exercise. Just remember full range of motion in each set and increasing weight. Don’t cheat.

Exercise three: (dropdowns)
Ropes push downs 3 working sets which each set consisting of 3 dropdowns of 10-12 reps

Love, peace and big muscles.

HEAVY TRAINING VS LIGHT TRAINING

The quickest answer from most would be to lift as much weight as you can while doing as many reps as possible in good form, which really works to get a muscular physique eventually.

Basically overloading on your weights will stress the muscle which leads to small tears in the muscle that will build back and grow bigger with the proper rest and diet, of course, preparing you for the next heavy workout.
But as all things in life there is a limit, and the body finally stops gaining so much or so easily.
At this point is where another training principle comes in to shock us. Lift lighter weight with higher reps to stimulate the muscle differently into growth.

But can you really build muscle with light weights and high reps? Yes indeed!

Haven’t you ever noticed that pros as well as amateurs compete in their older ages and wondered how?

A couple of factors:

1. Supplementation/Diets

2. Better Training Methods

3. More Rest

4. And more precautions with regards to their health

Everybody has heard of heavy or HIT training (High Intensity Training) you gain muscle mass with this method, thick dense muscle, but even Dorian said that HIT training affected the length of his career and he eventually had to stop competing, so is training heavy with low reps ideal? At the end of the day it truly works however you pay the price. But would all these athletes achieve what they had if they did not train heavy? Well honestly it’s a big dilemma, I would say mixing it up they could have seen better results and endured longer careers, achieving even more.

To offer you one of my training principles as an example I train 3 weeks heavy low reps and then 1 weeks moderately light and high reps, I might even throw in a drop-down or super-set to shock the muscles even more and to spice up the workout regime.

In conclusion my answer is YES, even with light weights you can achieve muscle gains, the reason being that light training increases the number of red blood vessels feeding the muscles more leading to growth while heavy training does the opposite, decreasing the amount of red blood cells supplied to the muscle but on the other hand causing microscopic damage to the muscle fibers forcing them to repair and grow.

So at the end of the day MIX IT UP PEOPLE! and try to look out of the box don't be steroid types with your workouts do not limit yourselves. Just as I do. It’s safer due to a smaller risk of injury and you don’t really get bored of your workout, keeping things interesting. Remember variety is the spice of life!

The video below is with me,Neil Hill, Kris Gethin and Marika Johansson using the Y3T training principle for a quad workout

.

Peace and Love and big muscles

Off-Season: A Discussion

Bodybuilding, as a competitive sport, is not even 150 years old. While the practice of building muscles for various purposes dates back to the ancient Greeks, we have a long road ahead of us in learning the best ways to develop our muscles safely and as effectively as possible. Bodybuilders don't have the advantage of thousands of years of knowledge and development of techniques. We have to combine techniques with new information on how our bodies work, and quite simply, a discussion of what works and what doesn't from people who have been there, done that.

Off-Season is an important time for bodybuilding, because if done incorrectly, it can be counterproductive. Bodybuilders used to gain as much weight as possible thinking that weight gain equaled muscle gain, so that, closer to competitions, they would diet and exercise to reduce the fat and supposedly uncover these extra pounds of muscle underneath and have a nice shredded look. However, we now know this to be a short cut that simply doesn't work. The ugly truth is... there is NO short cut.

If we don't keep on a clean diet, and do our cardio at least three times a week, we will gain more fat which is counterproductive, because 13-15% body fat is the most anobolic. There is a delicate balance here, because keep in mind that if you stay under 10%, the muscle gain is restricted. Why, then, should we gain more weight during the off-season if it is not productive for our goals? Like in my previous post, "Sets and Reps...Is Less More?", I mentioned the problem of the Ego and training with our hearts instead of our brains. We gain an excess amount of weight that does not help us be our most competitive for different reasons, such as looking huge under our clothes, or because it helps us lift heavier amounts of weights. While this is impressive in the gym, it is not good for our bodies, or ultimately, for our competitive goals. We have to keep in mind that when we gain a lot of weight, we are very lucky if a quarter of each pound is muscle. Let's do some math: 20lbs/4= 5lbs of pure muscle in the best case scenario. Don't forget that with the best anobolics and the best support in training and sponsorships, ten pounds of muscle gain per year is a very idealistic goal. Most people, under the best conditions, will not gain even this much.

Another reason why the practice of gaining a lot of weight in the off-season is counterproductive is because we have certain problem areas that hold fat very stubbornly and it is difficult to burn it. The longer the fat stays, the less chances that it will be gone in time for contests. These areas include lower back, glutes, and hamstrings. Some people share the concern that they could lose their muscle during the off-season if they don't gain the extra weight. However, with proper nutrition, eating high quantities of quality foods and calories, there will be little to no muscle loss. For an example, eating a large value meal at McDonalds gives you 1500 calories. There is so much fat and so little nutrition involved in that meal, that, even though you are eating your target calories, will lead you to gain more than the ideal 15% body fat. Anything higher than that is not productive for off-season. If you eat the same amount of calories in healthier foods that are high in protein with balanced carbs and fats, you are maintaining your muscle while restricting the percentage of total body fat. This will help you look like a bodybuilder, even in the off-season, versus looking like a marshmallow man walking around in 100 layers of clothes.

Remember: pure muscle gains are always small. There should be no slacking off in the off-season because to be at your best in this sport, you need 52 weeks of dedication. When competition time comes, you only need 14-16 weeks of dieting, slowly and smoothly decreasing your weight weekly to reveal your well-maintained muscle underneath with hopefully a few pounds of muscle added. By staying lean throughout the year, you don't need to do extra, crazy restricted diets nearing show time. When you are dieting and cardio training in the off-season, remember that you have to be balanced. Less than 10% body fat and more than 15% will not help you. Keep the balance between those numbers and you will be working at your most effective. So where does it leave us? Well 10kg over your body weight should be the best target in your off-season, give or take a kilo or two, depending on you competitive weight.

The sooner you realize that bodybuilding is not so much what you weigh, but how you look in that weight, the sooner you will get into a great condition to become a winner. To be a champion, or to reach your target, is a lonely road. A lot of people cannot understand this sport, including your partner. Like in my previous post, "Back Like a Boomerang", I talked about my struggles with this sport and how I was torn between my love for the competitions and living a "normal" life, but I've accepted that some people will support me, and some people don't want to see me succeed. That tells me that I'm making choices in my life and that is the right thing to do. The faster you learn to balance this dedication with other aspects in your life, the happier you will be. Remember to keep your focus on your goal and don't focus on other people's ideas. There are a lot of people out there who understand and support these athletes so forget about the ones that don't.

Love and Peace and big muscles.